"The problem here is that the land is now private property. there was a move to deed it to the city, but the Athiest attorney attacked that. "
Backwards, it is on city property, and there was an effort to deed it to a private entity, but that fell apart because of the 2/3rds vote requirement.
If the land was private property, the cross would not be in danger.
That may be true for now, but the ACLU is working on an approach to crosses on private property. Perhaps an eminent domain attack first and then a separation of church and state attack, or something like that....